SMASH! First graders in Mrs. Wartman's class are loving their math block. Each day the students work on our math curriculum, addition and subtraction fluency, and they work to build problem solving skills. Mrs. Wartman was helping her students build subtraction fluency by using fun manipulatives in math. Manipulatives are a wonderful tool that helps to make abstract math problems more concrete for the students. The students were using Play-Doh. They took pieces of Play-Doh and smashed them down. They used these pieces to fill in a ten frame to help figure out subtraction problems. The students enjoyed this hands-on math activity and it really helped them visualize the subtraction problems! It was a smashing success!
